Monday, April 21, 2008

I hate you, Ticketmaster!

On Saturday morning, I got up at ten minutes to 10am for the specific purpose of buying tickets for myself and five other people for the John Mayer show in July. I'd looked at tickets the night before and was ready. I had my credit card, I had the sections we wanted to sit in, I was set. I was on the site by 9:59am, and as soon as I was able, I started the process.

The "best" tickets I could find? In the third section, instead of the first, as we'd all planned. I was fully ready to purchase the more expensive tickets, but where were they? The pre-sale couldn't possibly have gotten them all, right? They don't even let that happen. And why was everything sold out before the clock even turned to 10:01am???

Then I thought - it has to be the size group that we have. So I tried searching for three people. I tried searching for two people. I even tried searching for just one! And the closest I could get was two pit tickets on AUCTION for $130.

We ended up sucking it up and getting the cheaper seats on the third level, because everyone still wanted to go. And then the freaking fees started.

We bought $55 tickets, and each of them ended up costing $75. That's almost 37% in FEES! I should have called the venue directly, or spent the two hours it would have taken me to drive down and buy them. But who knows if the tickets would still be available?

It's this outrageous catch-22, and Ticketmaster is very aware and exploits it. And that makes me so mad! I always knew that Ticketmaster was a sell out. But this is ridiculous.